Across the nation.

Man Defends Couple Accused Of Kidnapping Him 22 Years Ago

March 11, 2001|By From Tribune News Services.

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO — A young New Mexico man has issued an emotional defense of the couple he knows as his parents, who are accused of having kidnapped him as a baby after a bid to adopt him went wrong.

Matthew Propp, 22, praised the couple who raised him in Albuquerque after fleeing New York City with him as a 15-month-old.

"My parents are the people I've known for 22 years," he said Friday. "They're the people that loved me, cared about me, have always taken care of me and have always made sure I had everything I wanted and needed."

He was speaking after the man he knew as his father, Bennett Propp, surrendered to prosecutors in New York City under his real name, Barry Smiley.

Barry Smiley and his wife, Judith, who went by the name Mary Propp for the past two decades, have told authorities they ran away with Matthew in 1980 after a judge nullified their adoption of the boy.

Matthew Propp, born Anthony Joseph Russini, said the Smileys had told him the truth of their flight from New York last August.

Propp family attorney Fred Martinez said the two runaway parents had come to him several weeks ago to arrange a surrender to New York authorities, which he said they had planned for years.

Barry Smiley was jailed in New York City on $25,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a charge of kidnapping. His wife was still in Albuquerque recovering from knee surgery. If convicted, they could each face up to 25 years in prison.

Martinez said Matthew Propp met his biological father and mother--Anthony Russini and his ex-wife, Deborah Gardner--last week in a reunion arranged by prosecutors. The two had spent thousands of dollars searching for the boy after he was taken.